Mutchler, a lawyer who grew up in Eastern Pennsylvania and graduated from Penn State, was the first person to serve as public access counselor for the state of Illinois. But she has considerable experience on the ground in fighting for access to government documents.
Before she went to law school, she was a reporter for the Allentown Morning Call and a bureau chief for the Associated Press, working in the state Capitol newsroom in Harrisburg. She was a participant in a landmark court case involving the publication of information from a leaked police report.
Pennsylvania's Office of Open Records was established when the new Right to Know Law was passed in February. The law presumes that most government records are open to the public unless it can be demonstrated otherwise.
Mutchler will set policies for state and local agencies and oversee the appeals process when requests for information are refused. She was appointed for a six-year term and by law can serve only two terms. She will be paid $120,000 a year.
Although the new law flipped the burden of proof onto agencies that would deny public access to records, it still contains flaws. We at least know there will be someone in charge in Harrisburg who understands the importance of openness and will fight for it.